Annual Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus 2024

Invitation: Annual Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
 
Maryvale House, Kingstanding, Sacred Heart Chapel and Shrine is a place where people can come and truly experience the joy, peace and wonder of the First Friday Masses which start at 7pm each First Friday.
 
It is also the place where the Sacred Heart Novena Masses are celebrated. This year the Novena starts on Thursday 30 May and finishes on Friday 7 June 2024 on the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Masses start at 7pm. 

Reminder: There is no longer the traditional Sunday Mass as there was in the past.

History of Maryvale Sacred Heart Novena

Maryvale House is a place of pilgrimage and devotion as well as an educational centre, and the focus of that devotion is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The story of Maryvale’s link with the Sacred Heart begins with Bishop John Milner who became Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District in 1803. He had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart and when he enlarged the main chapel of the seminary/school, he built above the sacristy a small chapel in the Gothic style which became the first public shrine of the Sacred Heart in the British Isles.

In 1814 Bishop Milner brought back from Rome a small panel of painted glass showing the Sacred Heart of Jesus as described by St Gertrude; he set the panel in a window of the shrine and from that time onwards devotion to the Sacred Heart has been a key part of Maryvale’s life of faith and prayer.

St John Henry Newman, who founded the Oratory at Maryvale in 1848 said “In the Eucharist, the Heart of Jesus beats for us still".

The Sisters of Mercy kept Devotion to the Sacred Heart going when they came to live at Maryvale in 1851 and started the practice of keeping a 'Perpetual Lamp' burning in the Chapel.

The link between Maryvale (Old Seminary) has continued over the years with students and staff coming to Maryvale Institute and visiting the Chapel and the Shrine of Sacred Heart.

When Monsignor Daniel McHugh came in June 1980 to start the new Maryvale Institute, the Sisters of Mercy schooled him in the importance of the Shrine to the people in the area and beyond.

He was fortunate that the Sisters of St Paul the Apostle joined him in August as the Sisters of Mercy departed. One of them, Sister Philomena, took on looking after the Shrine.

Mgr McHugh began the public First Friday Masses and in 1981 the Novena of Masses leading up to the Feast, together with a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the Sunday after the Feast.

Coming to Maryvale in 1999, the Bridgettine Sisters continued to promote the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And it is wonderful to see that the Feast of the Sacred Heart has now become the Annual World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests (2007).

Discover Maryvale

Novena to the Sacred Heart prayer